TPP, FTV spar over alleged editing of platform presentation footage

Taipei, Dec. 21 (CNA) The Taiwan People's Party (TPP) on Thursday accused Formosa TV (FTV) of editing out part of TPP presidential candidate Ko Wen-je's (柯文哲) remarks during Wednesday night's televised platform presentation, which FTV denied.

The alleged editing occurred on FTV's YouTube channel which livestreamed the platform presentation. FTV was also the TV station in charge of relaying the signal to all other stations broadcasting the presentation, TPP spokesperson Vicky Chen (陳智菡) told a news conference at TPP headquarters.

In the missing 44 seconds, the TPP chairman criticized the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for failing to fulfill its goal of building 200,000 social housing units in eight years and touting his own achievement in providing such units as Taipei mayor.

"[Rent subsidies] are often as good as none. Who is responsible for young people being unable to afford buying or renting a home, and worrying about being exploited after renting an apartment? What has the DPP done in the past seven years? When President Tsai took office, she said she would provide 200,000 social housing units in eight years. However, when I checked in August this year, there were only 21,528 social housing units for lease in total, and most of them were built when I was Taipei mayor.

As of right now, Tainan City government has not built any social housing units. What does housing justice means? It means if you can't afford to buy a home, you can at least afford to rent a decent house," Ko said, according to footage of the debate uploaded by other media outlets.

Ko was apparently referring to the number of completed social housing units. According to statistics compiled the Ministry of the Interior, the country had 27,781 completed units as of Aug. 31, of which those in Taipei accounted for 11,360 or 52.7 percent.

The incident represented a failure to report an important political event that could shape Taiwan's future in a balanced and fair manner, Chen said, adding that Ko was the only candidate whose remarks appeared to have disappeared.

During a question-and-answer session at the news conference, Chen Kuang-chung (陳光中), head of the internet division of FTV News, vigorously denied the TPP's accusations.

There was likely a lag while YouTube was receiving data packets being uploaded by FTV, which could account for the missing section, Chen Kuang-chung said.

The signal shared with other news outlets, internally with FTV staff, on Facebook, and on YouTube was exactly the same, and there was no reason FTV would feel the need to tamper with the footage, he said.

Stressing that he would never have allowed such a shameless thing, Chen Kuang-chung said that the incident was a misunderstanding and definitely not a result of "covert editing, which would have been an insult to people's intelligence, a crude attempt, and something that obviously would have been illegal."

Prior to the TPP's news conference, some netizens accused FTV of editing out part of Ko's remarks, prompting a response from the Central Election Commission, which said in a statement that following a review of the footage aired through FTV's wireless LAN channel, it determined that the presentation had been broadcast in full and there was no evidence of any tampering with the footage.

As of press time, FTV has taken down the problematic video and uploaded the full video to YouTube.

In other news, Ko said Thursday through a TPP spokesperson that he would proactively deal with a piece of farmland in Hsinchu City registered under his name which has illegally been used to charge parking fees.

The plot of land was declared by Ko when he was Taipei mayor.

After the infraction was revealed by the media, Ko said Thursday that he asked someone to check on the land on Dec. 19 and found an unspecified number of tour buses parked on it.

Hsinchu City government said Thursday it will send Ko a notice asking him to make the necessary improvements to bring the land's use into line with its designated agricultural use status or be fined NT$60,000 to NT$300,000.